The Hand of God
by Safis grin
Summary: The story goes on from where the series end. Figure with violet hair passed Hikaru one day and now he is chasing Sai again. What he will find gives him greater surprise he was prepared for. Can he finally reach for the "Hand of God"? (There are some new characters, and I do romance, so it s going to be involved, but I am not into yaoi, so you can t find any in this story.)
1. Chapter 1 Could it be you, Sai?

A/N: About this story. I want to stay fateful to the original story, but I have to do that to my own style as well. I think if the original would have continuation, Sai would not be coming back. And it always bothered me that no one was able to reach the Hand of God. I want to see the story till the end, and hopefully you can do the same through my story. Enjoy.

**Hikaru no Go – the Hand of God**

Chapter 1: Could it be you, Sai?

Hikaru felt the cool wind tossing his hair as he inhaled deeply. Somehow the bright red leafs that were hanging from the trees ready to fall on the ground, made him feel nostalgic. It´s not like the leafs itself or the autumn held any specific memories, but somehow they seemed kind of noble and had an aura of eternity… like Sai. It had been almost a half a year that Sai had gone missing for good. Hikaru felt like he had gotten over the worst of longing for his friend, but sometimes the inner wounds felt still sore.

"Hey!" Hikaru was brought back from his inner world by fingers snapping in front of his face. When turning his head Waya was looking irritated and waiting for something. When Hikaru could only stare questionably, Waya slapped his hand over his face: "Aah! Man! What is wrong with you!? You´ve been like this for almost a whole month already! Look, I know you are inpatient to rise up with your current rating, but would it kill you to try to concentrate when people are speaking to you?"

Hikaru let a little lopsided smirk come out: "But I do listen …when I know it´s not boring." "Yeah right, like you… hey!" "Okay Waya, close your mouth before you swallow a fly. We´re here." They had arrived before a new café, that was only half a block from the Go center. They had planned on meeting with Isumi and Fukui there to hang out now that they had some free time, even if it was getting late. When entering, the place was nothing out of the ordinary …so why Hikaru had felt little nervous… or maybe anxious?

Both Fukui and Isumi were already there, sitting on a table-booth next to a window. Hikaru made his way to the table and Waya waved his hand as a sign to a waitress to come and get their order. It was nice just sit and relax. The coffee started soothing Hikarus mind and he soon found himself lost in an interesting conversation about Wayas last game. Well, it was more of a funny story than interesting one. Fukui made and impression of Waya when an old man had sneezed on top of the go-board just when Waya had been placing his stone on it. "And then Waya started screaming like a girl…" "That is NOT true! And it´s easy for you to make fun of me, but if you had your hand suddenly covered by someone's brains...!" Hikaru was laughing with Isumi so hard he almost missed a conversation on the next table behind him.

"Hey, weren´t you supposed to meet your dad at eight? It´s almost 7:50." "What?! Aaa, sorry, would you lift that?! Bye!" The conversation or even the sound of fallen chair was not anything that would have made Hikaru move his attention from the humiliation of Waya, but he turned his head just slightly when someone passed him and all he saw was a lean figure with a long violet hair. Hikarus world stopped. And as soon as the time had stilled, it started running again – with much too quick pace. "Wait!" Hikaru stumbled over his chair and flexed all his muscles to reach for that hair that had slipped out of the cafés door. "Wait!"

Waya was first of the other three to realize that Hikaru had bolted from his seat: "Oi! Hikaru! Wha..?" And then the door closed with both of the figures gone. "What just happened?" Both Isumi and Fukui were as clueless, but Isumi tried some kind of realistic possibility: "Maybe the person just now dropped something?" "Maybe... But was it just me, or was Hikaru almost in panic?"

Hikaru was running based on his instings – he was not sure which way the figure had gone. It had been about less than a minute, but he felt desperation starting to pump adrenaline into his system. He was running faster and almost felt like crying, but then he saw a glimpse of that blessed violet hair! "Wait!.. hey, WAIT!" The figure stopped running to turn towards the sound. Hikaru felt like losing his mind – it was Sai! It WAS Sai! He felt his legs push even harder against the ground. But Sais face didn´t show the expected foolish smile, but confusion and when Hikaru was almost there Sai turned quickly and started running away from him. _No!_ "Sai!"

Sai turned to look over his shoulder: "Get away from me! I don´t have any money!" _What..?_ "Sai! Stop!" "You got the wrong person!" "Sai!" Hikaru couldn´t think. "SAI!" Sai seemed to stiffen a little, but turned his head little bit again: "I´m NOT Sai! Get away from me!" Hikaru felt his eyes starting to sting. Was he going to lose Sai again? What..? Why was Sai running? He had missed Sai… he had missed Sai so much he hadn´t realized it… "PLEASE!" Hikarus voice cracked when he shouted. At that moment he lost his footing and fell. "..please.. Sai.."

Hikaru didn´t realize at first that the sound of Sais steps had stopped also, but then careful voice came right in front of him: "Are you okay..?" Hikarus eyes snapped open and he lifted his head to see sharp face with blue eyes and violet hair so very near. Hikaru tried reaching for Sai, but he backed away at the same second. "Don´t try anything funny!" Hikaru couldn´t keep his emotions in check anymore: "Sai! Sai! Don´t go!" "How many times I have to tell you I´m not.." "I don't want to lose you again!" Hikarus shoulders collapsed as tears started falling from his eyes.

After a silent moment Hikaru felt someone putting their hand on his shoulder. And suddenly Hikaru felt that hand circle him in an awkward hug. From his surprise he could hear a small mumble next to his ear. "I must be out of my mind… Listen. I don´t think I´m the one you are thinking, but I can´t leave you here crying. It´s going to be okay." Hikaru pulled the figure as close to him as he could. _"Sai…"_

When Hikaru started calming down he became more aware of his surroundings. Still he wasn't weary enough to care about the fact that he was crying on the street, sitting on his knees with person in his arms, even if there weren´t really any people passing by. But the first real thing he took notice was the familiar violet hair in front of his eyes. The next notice was a bit surprising. _"Was Sai always this small..?"_ ´Sai´ sensed Hikaru calming down so he backed up to look at him. And for the first time Hikaru really looked at him. And froze. "This is not how you try to pick up girls, is it?" The figure asked smiling lightly with corner of her mouth. Hikaru licked his suddenly very dry lips: "You are a girl..?" The person in front lifted her right eyebrow: "Do I look like a man to you?" No, SHE definitely did not look like a man. Actually now that Hikaru was eyeing her he wondered how he could make the mistake. The figure was definitely a girl. But when he lifted his eyes to her face, he felt his chest swell with feeling of contentment, like having his family back.

Everything in her face said Sai. She had the same forehead, the same cheeks, the same nose, the same lips, the same hair and the same eyes. Sai had always been as beautiful as any gorgeous woman, but when looking carefully there were some differences: maybe she had darker lashes and looked back with much more bolder expression than Sai had ever looked. In a way she did seem little bit more manly than Sai, but that didn´t come from her outer looks.

"Okay, if you have had good enough look and stopped with the tears, I´m going to go. Sorry about the disappointment. I hope you find your friend next time." While getting up the girl grabbed Hikarus arm to lift him up. "Are you going to be okay?" Hikaru nodded slightly. "Yes…" "In that case, I´m taking my leave now. And just as a tip: don´t go freaking people like that. I thought you were going to attack me… okay, take care.." "Wait!" Hikaru stopped her with taking a hold of her arm in turn. "Are you…" "Hikaru!" Hikaru turned towards the sound of someone yelling his name. The three friends he left behind in the café were running towards him. Hikaru waved his hand as a sign he had seen them, but then remembered, he wasn´t finished with more important issue. He turned back towards the Sai-copy, but saw no one. He made his eyes run on his surroundings, but the violet hair vas nowhere to be seen. He almost bolted into running again, but Isumi beat him to it and grabbed his collar: "What are you doing? I need to…" "What are YOU doing?" Isumis voice didn´t held much anger but it was clear Hikaru wouldn´t be running anywhere for a while.

The other boys were present just after and Fukui had to lean on his legs to calm down his breathing. Waya was not as calm as Isumi: "What the hell? You didn´t only make us run around for a way too long time, but also made us pay for your drink!" Hikaru hadn´t thought about the bill… "I´m sorry Waya, guys, but I…" What was he going to say? There was nothing he could say. The truth was too absurd and lying was not a merit of his. So he chose to say nothing. Waya crossed his hands in front of his chest and started tapping his leg impatiently to the ground.

Fukui was able to breathe normally again, so he took over the conversation: "What were you running for anyway? If someone dropped their walled you could have just given it to the counter. They would contact the owner." "I… I thought I saw someone I know. Sorry." The trio all sighted. "Well, I guess if everything is okay, I think we can leave this behind." Isumi said while tapping his hand lightly on Hikarus back, before dropping it. Waya stomped in front of Hikaru and messed over his hair with slightly too much force: "Aaaa! Fine! But you are going to pay for ALL of us the next time we go anywhere with food included!" "Okay, okay! I´m sorry! Aaa! Don´t.. Waya! I said sorry!.. Hey..!" Fukui and Isumi let out a little laugh and when Fukui pried Waya away from Hikaru, Isumi decided to call it a day: "Okay, we all have games tomorrow, so let´s go home." They turned and started walking with Isumi and Fukui teasing Waya calling him ´hot head´. Hikaru turned to look the scenery one more time and couldn´t help but wanting to know if that person had any other connection with Sai besides the undeniable outer resembles. When he signed and was about to go after his friends he saw something familiar on the ground. Hikaru reached for it and surely it was a black go-stone. He knew it wasn´t his, because he didn´t have any with him. The other three always carried theirs on their back or didn´t carry them around at all. There was a possibility it was just randomly there, but Hikaru could hear a tiny voice speaking in the back of his head: _"What are the chances of that? It has to be hers, which means…"_ "I can find her." "Find who?" "Aaaa! Fukui! Don´t do that! Do you want my heart to fail?" Hikaru walked past Fukui towards the other two who had stopped to wait for them. Fukui raised his shoulders and started following Hikaru.


	2. Chapter 2 The second chase

**The second chase**

Toya was irritated. He always called Hikaru with all kinds of names using all his mistakes during the game as a base for those, but this time he felt there wasn´t a name he could call this idiot that would fit with all the poor playing his rival had been making. All Hikaru had been doing for the last two and a half hours was spacing out and playing with some Go-stone, which wasn´t even from the set they had been using. Hikaru could be an outstanding player and show it – except he wasn´t showing it! "What is matter with you!?" Toya had reached a certain limit. Hikaru jumped upon hearing his tight voice. "Huh? What do you mean?" "You suck even more than usual! You played kosumu here and didn´t cover something as obvious as this! I even GAVE you space here to see, if you would react and you did – in a worst possible way!" Toya was pointing out every single place where Hikaru had either made error or had left unnoticed. There were a lot of those places.

Just to cover up little bit, he started pointing out some weak points of Toyas game, but had to admit: he wasn´t able to concentrate at all. All he was able to do was think about the clone of Sai he had seen two weeks ago. From time to time he thought if it had been just his imagination – a false memory, but then he found the black stone from his pocket to hold in his hand. He wanted to see that girl again. She looked so much like Sai. No, she looked TOO much like Sai. There just HAD to be some kind of connection.

And now his top priority was to find that girl again. His clue was that she possibly, probably, played Go. And he was going to attain every single event and competition in Tokyo in hope that they would be in the same place at the same time. The only problem was that he couldn´t focus on any of his games because he had to observe his surroundings all the time. What if he would look too intently the board and she would walk past unnoticed by him? The odds were already against him when it came on finding her, but that he would have more than one chance of bumping into her? – Impossible.

And now he was sitting here, on the Eastern Tokyo Go marketing event with Toya. They had played one game against each other after Hikarus one and Toyas three tutoring games and at the moment, Toya was yelling at him. There wasn´t anything out of the ordinary about that in itself, but now it felt more annoying than usual. Hikaru squeezed the black stone inside his palm and hit the table with it: "That´s it! Like you have any idea…!" Hikaru´s words died in his mouth as he looked past Toya. The olive-haired rival had been ready for a verbal battle, but Hikaru hadn´t even finished the first sentence. Curiosity got better of him and he turned to look what Hikaru was seeing. Toya could not spot anything out of the ordinary from the crowd. But then he heard a faint whisper escaping Hikaru´s lips: "Sai…"

There she was! It seemed she had come with two of her friends who didn´t seem to be too much into Go. The other two looked bored and tried to drag ´Sai´ towards the market table while the violet haired girl was trying to concentrate on a game being played in front of her.

These had been a very long two weeks for Hikaru. Even if he had the plan of finding her he hadn´t thought what to do after that. So he went with instincts and bolted up from his spot to reach her as quickly as possible. He was so determined to get to her he missed Toya turning sharply towards him after hearing the name of the famous internet-player. After the loud voice Hikaru had caused, Toya was not the only one to turn towards him. The spotted girl turned also and the look she had after seeing Hikaru was not one of happiness. Her face spoke of a difficulty to believe her eyes and as an after reaction for Hikarus intense closing up, little panic flashed in her eyes. Maybe Hikaru should have guessed the after come: the girl turned towards her friends and pushed them with noticeably force: "Go! Go! GO!" _"Damn!"_ Hikaru was running after her again! The difference was that now there were too many people to slow him down. He was clad her friends seemed not too happy with the thought of running.

The only thing Hikaru could try was to close up with speed. He would cause problems to other players if he started shouting in the hall. And what could he possibly shout? The only name he had called her earlier would probably cause so great disturbance he would surely lose this chase. _Little bit closer…_ _No!_ Hikaru had failed to catch her even when he was very close in doing so. But just on the last second the girl had turned right and moved barely out of the way of his hand. The girl seemed to chance tactics as she abandoned her friends, which allowed her to increase her speed. Hikaru thought for a second he could just stop and ask from those other girls who was the violet haired one, but decided against it. Maybe it was because he felt he got answers easier straight from the girl still running or maybe because he was just stubborn. Probably the later.

Even if the situation was kind of serious he felt smile tugging on his lips. Wonder why? Maybe there was some weird comical aspect to this bizarre chase. And what made it even more humorous was the fact that this was already a second time he was running after and she was fleeing. _He didn´t even know who the girl was. _Hikaru felt laughter rising, but he had to keep it in if he didn´t want to slow down. After the next corner the girl run through the front door. The cool breeze felt great against Hikaru´s face and it made the running easier. When Hikaru watched the girl, making sure not to lose her, he took notice of a fact that her composure didn´t seem as good anymore. Like she was shaking little bit. Was she tired? If so, this was his chance. He gave an order to his legs and spurted forward. Hikaru reached, got a handful of violet hair and tugged. The girl´s legs had trouble adjusting to the sudden stop of her upper body, but she didn´t fall. Hikaru didn´t know what to expect but when she turned and her blue eyes looked the hair between Hikaru´s fingers, he was not expecting the girl to already be laughing like no end. She let out the most carefree laughter Hikaru had ever heard and before he understood what happened, he found himself laughing fully as well.

The girl got a hold of herself first. The mirth still evident in her voice she slapped Hikaru´s hand lightly away: "Okay, okay. Let go. I won´t run anymore." Hikaru still had little trouble steadying himself: "Why.. were you… running?" "Isn´t that supposed to be MY question?" Hikaru looked at her and after couple of seconds they burst out laughing again.

The girl composed herself – now she had had enough of the laughing. Then she became more serious and sighted but smiled faintly after: "I don´t know. …that was little bit out of character from me." Hikaru lifted the right corner of his mouth slightly: "I quess, I could say the same from myself." Then he remembered he possessed something of hers and got the black Go-stone from his pocket to give to her. The girl eyed the stone and lifted her right eyebrow. "I think you dropped it when we last met…?" Hikaru felt little bit stupid. "Please tell me you haven´t been chasing me just to return some Go-stone? By all means, keep it. You must value that a lot more than I do." Now Hikaru felt _really_ stupid, but regardless his flushing cheeks, he tried to ignore the embarrassment.

Hikaru put the stone back in his pocket, but didn´t let go of it. The smooth surface helped him to gain his thoughts. He couldn´t help but to burn the different details of the girls face into his mind. Without effort he could picture the ancient-fashioned dark hat into her head and the serious lips getting a purple hue. The intensity of her eyes was the same Sai had every time a game started. As the dead autumn leafs fell around them she had an aura of eternity and all Hikaru saw was Sai. He was there standing before him.

"Are you okay..?" "Huh?" Hikaru blinked and realized he had tears falling from his eyes. He wiped the fresh tears to his sleeve and nodded. "Yeah.. Sorry... I just…" Hikaru took a breath and locked his now dry and serious eyes with her. "Have you ever heard of a man called Fujiwara no Sai?" The following silence felt heavy and girl´s eyes left no hint of her thoughts out. Hikaru squeezed the black stone to the point his knuckles turned white inside his pocket. "Is this person important to you?" Hikaru let go of the stone and let it drop against the fabric inside his pants. "…yes. So…" "Why do you think I know anything about this person?" Hikaru stilled, opened his mouth, but closed it back. _Because you look exactly like him?_ But before Hikaru could find out what was the best move to make, she beat him to it. "Sorry. I don´t have any friends with that name. ..but I´m little bit curious. Who is this person to you?" Even though she didn´t even hint of the possibility she´d been lying, Hikaru felt like there was more. And that thought stopped him from being completely open about the subject either. "Sai is the reason I ever found my meaning in life. The thing I´m.." "..most passionate about." She had finished his sentence better than he could have. The girl smiled slightly at Hikarus disoriented face. "You are very easy to read. You love Go." Hikaru took a second to just stare the girl before him, but then the corners of his mouth started rising. He couldn´t help but get exited from the subject. "So.. you play too?" The girl´s eyes had a whole new shine lit into them. "Yes." "But I haven´t seen you in any of the tournaments before for sure because I wouldn´t miss spotting you from the crowd. Are you an amateur or an insei or.." "None of those. I merely play whenever I have the chance to. My father owns a shrine were the annual "Imperial Go-tournament" is held every year. Well.. it´s more of a show then real playing event, but I get to play the whole day against all kinds of people…" she suddenly catched herself babbling very much to a completely stranger.

But it was strange how this boy made her found herself acting out of character all the time. In any circumstances she never spoke or acted like this. This was more like her when she was five – NOT the fifteen she was supposed to be. Hikaru was listening intently, drowning in a world of Go. The girl chanced the subject: "My name is Sora. What´s yours?" She hold out her hand witch Hikaru took. "I´m Shindo Hikaru." Realization crossed on Soras face and she parted her lips ready to create a sentence.

"Fujiwara!" Both of them turned to look towards the voice. There was a girl in a school uniform waving to the girl. The girl in front of Hikaru lifted her hand as a response and looked back at Hikaru: I´m going now. I hope if we ever meet again, you feel content with just walking. Bye!" She started walking but turned to glance back over her shoulder when Hikaru yelled after her: "So, you won´t run ether, right?" The girl smirked: "If you won´t scare the shit out of me!" Hikaru let out a small laugh. When the girls had disappeared out of Hikarus sight he turned to look at the setting sun. Something had left nagging at the back of his mind. And like a lightning it hit him and he spun to look if he still could see the girls, but the street was empty. _"Fujiwara!"_


End file.
